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With Garden, Zero 7 have created what could be the ultimate summer evening record: warm pop hooks, lush instrumentation, unobtrusive electronica elements, and '60s-style harmonies that all come together into superb, wonderfully descriptive songs.
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83Edgier and more experimental than its predecessors, The Garden also ramps up the chill factor.
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80A quirky lo-fi wonder or the best album the '70s never had, "The Garden" feels like a lost gem, discovered in a box in the attic; a forgotten masterpiece full of tantalising sounds, odd voices and tingling ideas.
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The Garden differs from their debut, Simple Things, and its followup, Where It Falls, in that it scales back the soundscapes in favor of a more upbeat, organic, and song-based sound. [#14]
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80Packed with fine folk-tinged numbers. [Jun 2006, p.102]
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80Zero 7 have perfected the formula for folk jazz that transcends definition and defies classification, always taking you on joyous rides that often end at a truly unexpected place. [Jun 2006, p.108]
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80[A] playful, warm and inspired set.
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80Another superb Zero 7 album.
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80It feels like a bunch of friends jamming on a farm, even if there are still a few electronica elements here and there.
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80With The Garden, Zero 7 push beyond the electronica genre and out into an unnamed territory, an adventurous and yet highly listenable vocal pop for the 21st century.
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What they lack in pop fireworks they more than make up for in sumptuous beats and keyboard textures. [9 Jun 2006, p.139]
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The Garden is an enjoyably light album on the whole, but it's most remarkable for the stealthy way it smuggles in an even finer four-song Jose Gonzalez EP.
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70Happily, their third set rejects the sterility of 2004's When It Falls in favour of the kind of nuance-rich arrangements that give contemporary jazz-funk a good name. [Jun 2006, p.126]
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The songs are good, but the production is even better.
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70The folk and electronic elements are ever-present, but the chilled-out downtempo rhythms are now intertwined with chilled-out uptempo fare as if the duo has remixed itself.
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60[They] have stretched their wings. [Jun 2006, p.119]
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40The tracks that are anchored by [Sia and Jose Gonzalez] have a soulful edge, but elsewhere the instrumentals drift aimlessly toward the hotel jazz bar. [Jul 2006, p.90]
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As much as The Garden departs from past Zero 7 albums generically, it ultimately falls into the same trap: it readily signifies pop accessibility, but fails to communicate more than a vague aura.
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Gone is most of the musical adventurousness that redeemed the most seemingly cliché moments of the debut.
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32A warmed-over stew of scrubbed-up psychedelia, scrubbed-up sunshine pop, scrubbed-up soundtrack music, electrofunk, and lounge that's all produced immaculately, right down to the "messy" parts.
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Like a scented Lush bath-bomb of mediocrity. [27 May 2006, p.31]
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 15 out of 19
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Mixed: 2 out of 19
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Negative: 2 out of 19
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justined10Absolutely wonderful and inspiring!
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AnthonyB6
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sAND6Surprisingly disappointing compared to two previous albums, thoough not lacking nice tunes, sung mostly by Sia Furler. Where is Sophie Barker???